June 2011 Wrap-Up (and Giveaway Results!)

The end of June already!  Half a year gone, and I’m smashing all previous records (the reading ones that is – definitely not the blogging ones…).  As usual, for your perusal, here is the month of June at a glance…

But wait – at the end of this post (unusually), there will be the results of my F.C. Delius giveaway!  Patience is a virtue 🙂

*****
Total Books Read: 10
Year-to-date: 67

New: 10
Rereads: 0

From the Shelves: 6

From the Library: 4

On the Kindle: 0

Novels: 7

Novellas: 2
Short Stories: 1

Non-English Language: 4 (2 Japanese, 2 German)

In Original Language: 2 (2 German)

Books read in June were:
1) The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
2) Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre by Goethe
3) Felix Holt: The Radical by George Eliot
4) Silence by Shusaku Endo
5) Sartoris by William Faulkner
6) Bildnis der Mutter als junge Frau by Friedrich Christian Delius
7) The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming by Elliot Perlman
8) The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
9) The Lost Life by Steven Carroll
10) The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Murakami Challenge: 0 (2/3)

Aussie Author Challenge: 3 (13/12)

Victorian Literature Challenge: 1 (13/15)
Japanese literature Challenge 5: 2 (2/1)

Tony’s Recommendation for June is: Shusaku Endo’s Silence

June was an exceptional month, with a number of high-quality reads.  There was another wonderful novel from Australian writer Steven Carroll, F.C. Delius’ wonderful one-sentence book, the first of William Faulkner’s novels set in his fictionalised hometown, Yasunari Kawabata’s intriguing tale of games within a game, and Goethe’s classic Bildungsroman – on which I spent half of May and the first few days of June…

However, even in such a distinguished field, Shusaku Endo’s Silence was a stand out.  Very different from any of the J-Lit I’d read previously, this tale of a trial of faith in alien climes is well worth the effort – do try it 🙂

*****
Well, that’s all for… sorry, the giveaway?  Ah, yes – I’d almost forgotten 🙂

I had around sixty entries for this competition, which is roughly ten times the number of people that usually even read my posts, so I was slightly overwhelmed by the number of e-mails dropping into my inbox.  I was very happy though to see that everyone was happy to comply with my cheeky request for manners 😉

And the winner?  As chosen by a random computer thingy, congratulations to Laura of Devouring Texts – I will be contacting you for a postal address very soon!

But wait – there’s more!  Surprisingly, several of you expressed interest in the German-language version, and I have decided to be generous (the Aussie Dollar is doing very well at the moment!) and also award a German copy to one lucky entrant – and that person is Eva {the writer} – herzlichen Glückwunsch!  I’ll be e-mailing you too

Thank you for the interest and attention – time for me to slip back into obscurity.  Night all 🙂